No Grand Slam
Posted on April 10, 2008
My bad - I intended to post this prior to The Masters first round.
Always an interesting tournament as relative unknowns seem to rise to the top the first day or two, then just as quickly fade back into the pack as the seasoned ones pour forth. But the big question at this year’s Masters is not who will win but will this be the year of the Tiger for a true Grand Slam.
I know the first day is in the books but here’s my take. Yes, Tiger is on top of his game like never before. Yes, he wins bunches of tournaments in a row. But…no, this won’t be the year for a Grand Slam. OK, I’ll go one better than that. There will never be a Grand Slam for Tiger Woods. Anathema! How can you say such a thing? The only way I can imagine anyone winning a GS is to be able to mentally approach each tournament as just another tournament. I mean, to separate it from its connection to the ultimate golf achievement.
Tiger’s achievements are nearly beyond belief. But I don’t think he can ever do what I just said, play ‘em one at a time. For one thing, the media frenzy won’t let him. Unless he stays completely isolated from the press, which he can’t, pretty close to the first question every time he gets behind the mike is ‘What about the GS this year’? Now he can downplay that at the mike, but it’s in his head. And I don’t think even ice Tiger can push it aside.
You see, one of Tiger’s long term problems, in my opinion, has been his reluctance to play golf. Look at his stats for number of tournaments played. That’s one record he’ll never get. Which, of course, makes his number of wins even more amazing. But, it also means he has never been able to play a tournament simply because it’s a tournament. All of his tournaments have meaning behind them. He won’t play just any ole tournament. So his mindset is always not just to play all the tournaments he can and perhaps win several but to capture the trophies that have meaning to him. And he’s captured an awful lot of them. Congratulations to him….
But, as said, I also see that as his ultimate downfall (if you want to call it that). He’s never playing the Masters, he’s playing the GS. Though he may win this week, his ultimate loss in one or more of the others will belie the fact that in his mind, he’s playing one tournament made up of four pieces.
What they call it is pressure, pressure, pressure.
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4 Responses to “No Grand Slam”
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I disagree, this is his year for the GS. However, if he fails to win the Masters, I may change my mind.
I was only kidding, this is not his year, I feel it in my bones.
Looks like weather may have been the great equalizer this time around.
The unknowns at the top couldn’t be unseated by a big run. Anybody way back on a day like Sunday where everybody is at par or worse can only depend on total collapse from the front runners.
Six stroke deficits usually only go away by the leader dropping 2 or 3 and the challenger picking up
several. Not today, huh?
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